Food for Thought

Think back to everything you ate yesterday. How much food did you actually eat and how much of your meal ended up in the garbage? For me, I fully consumed all of the food I ate yesterday, but I went through my refrigerator and threw out old food takeout containers, spoiled mashed potatoes, and rotten bananas.

Do Something About It

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and ordered something you don’t like? Been to a family dinner where your grandma shoved unwanted bags of leftovers in peoples’ hands? Gone to a buffet and taken more than you can eat?

If you answered yes to any of these, you are not alone.

In fact, one-third of the amount of food produced around the world is wasted every year. In the United States this waste equates to 35 million tons or $165,000,000 annually. But as big as the problem is, you can do something about it:

Food waste is not a new problem and our habits are only getting worse. About 1/3 of the food that is produced for human consumption worldwide is lost or wasted from the farm to the kitchen. What’s even worse is that food insecurity is a huge problem in this country and we are wasting enough food to be able to feed those people for an entire year. In 2012, we wasted 35 million tons of food, which is enough to feed 70% of the hungry people in the United States for an entire year. This is frightening. We have the power to feed the hungry with all of the food we waste and yet we just throw it into the garbage.

Ethically, food waste is bad. Food waste is also harmful for the environment. When food sits in landfills, it emits methane, which is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. As the impacts of climate change continue to get more severe, we should be taking every effort to reduce our own carbon footprint. Reducing the amount of food we waste is just one way to do so.

Finally, food waste is expensive. Americans throw out $165 billion worth of food each year. To fully understand just how much money that is, I compared it to the U.S. Federal Budget for the 2013 fiscal year. $165 billion is equivalent to what the federal government spent on education, homeland security, agriculture, commerce, and energy last year.

However, there are simple ways to reduce your food waste. Composting is a great example because it saves food scraps from landfills and turns them into soil for gardening. Serving smaller portions and buying less food are two more easy ways to reduce food waste. Another unique way to reduce food waste is with the app, PareUp. PareUp allows consumers to buy excess food from grocery stores, coffee shops, and juice bars at a discounted price.

So while our massive food waste habits are a problem, there are simple solutions. Reducing our food waste will not only save us money because we’ll be buying less food to waste, but it will help the environment too.

Related Content

The UC Davis Renewable Energy Anaerobic Digester, which officially opened Earth Day, April 22, 2014, converts organic waste from campus and other sources into clean energy for the campus electrical grid. The anaerobic digestion technology used in the facility was invented by UC Davis professor Ruihong Zhang and licensed to Sacramento-based CleanWorld. (UC Davis)

Here's an unpopular, but environmentally friendly habit that can prevent food waste and reduce the amount of waste that heads to the landfill: Dumpster diving. And, surprise! You might also make some money doing it. (Photos by Peter Jurich/University of Wisconsin-Madison)